The Southern Patriotic Project and Enemies of the Future Stage

Ahmed Omar Ben Farid

A Prominent Southern Politician

The southern patriotic project, manifested in liberation, independence and declaration of an independent southern state, is facing major difficulties that are natural to appear in this stage. In my opinion, some of these difficulties are very natural and can never be something else. But others result from “special” conceptions stemming from the interests of involved parties according to changes, not from contradicted strategies of these parties. All these barriers can be handled as part of the challenge and nature of such battel. What is more dangerous, in my opinion, is what some southern parties do, either consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly. Such acts turn the southern transitional council into a sitting duck for his enemies. These parties make the council look like responsible for all the world’s faults and errors, as if the council imprisoned them off the national work with a secret code and holds the fields of work exclusively for himself!!
We said that before and here we are repeating the words again. The council is “full” of faults and errors. He does right sometimes and other times he acts wrongfully. He works according available chances in the middle of a very complicated military and political situation of a war conducted by unprecedent Ally in the Arab history according to its capabilities, strengths and political and military influence. This war carries a slogan declared by the Ally to the whole world that is “Restoring Legitimacy”. In the middle of this war, the council works according to a clear political agenda by which he never gives up any of our patriotic principles we fought for.
Some of those want the Arab Ally to declare independence and to adopt our patriotic project on behalf of us. This southern party thinks that training about (60000) southern soldiers, especially under current circumstances, is very natural and deserves no thinking or even reminding us that, on the contrary, Sanaa regimen forcefully dismissed the same number of soldiers after 1994 war!! We must see that we are facing an inverted equation in favor of us. But such things don’t deserve optimism or even gratitude. For them, it is not enough that these trained forces are exclusively southern and the very little ratio that mixed with them from outside the south didn’t come according to the plans or support of the Arab Ally but by the influence and cunning of the legitimacy and its loyal persons in the south.
Those parties should ask themselves: isn’t it true that the Arab Ally could build joint forces from the southern soldiers and soldiers of the Arab Republic of Yemen, as long as the slogan is to restore legitimacy and enforcing the outcomes of the national dialogue and security council decision? Why didn’t the Ally do so? Why did the legitimacy use its power to dismiss southern leaders from their executive positions in the south as a reaction to that? I should remind everyone here, at that critical stage of our patriotic struggle, that I hold you all responsible for all consequences of delaying our patriotic project or, God prohibits, its failure. I know that many of you act according to clear patriotic principles but others, very few indeed, act systematically for the interest of Ben Doghr’s government that is launching a media campaign to doubt everything and discourage all patriotic efforts just to imprison the southern people in disappointment and sense of helplessness.
I should remind them that the southern patriotic project, in this critical stage, is facing internal and regional actors who act against us with all their capabilities. I’m not exaggerating if I say that in the past we were facing one party, that is Sanaa’s regimen, but now we are facing more parties. These parties agree on one thing, that is to fight and kill the southern project. The problem is that we all know these parties, but we work for supporting their destructive efforts unconsciously. Today we are facing occupation troops of Sanaa and occupation troops of the legitimacy, especially the Yemeni Gathering for Reform – the political arm of Muslim Brotherhood. We are facing Iran and its strategic partner, Al-Houthi militias. We are facing the regional project of Muslim Brotherhood that wants to rule “unified Yemen” under full support of Turkey and Qatar. We are also facing the Arab Ally’s errors, that sometimes are catastrophic. We are facing southern voices inside the legitimacy that don’t see anything but their bank accounts, no matter the price is, and they are willing to fight any patriotic southern movement through sectarian and territorial discrimination and through painful memories of our southern past. All these parties work around the clock against any southern effort and we are supporting them unconsciously!!
We should recognize the challenge we are facing. We shouldn’t be occupied by trivia, as if we are children playing with a ball. This ball is the southern cause that should be protected, not kicked to the enemy.